Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 238 > Benefits

• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Any other state: includes any state and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Articles of organization: means the document described in ORS § 63. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Child support order: means a support order for a child, including a child who has attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state or foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Convention: means the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, concluded at The Hague on November 23, 2007. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• County court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Distribution: means a direct or indirect transfer of money or other property, except of a limited liability company's own interests, or a limited liability company's incurrence of indebtedness to or for the benefit of the limited liability company's members in respect of a member's interests, whether in the form of a declaration or payment of profits, a purchase, retirement or other acquisition of interests, a distribution of indebtedness, or otherwise. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• domestic limited liability company: means an entity that is an unincorporated association that has one or more members and is organized under this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Duty of support: means an obligation imposed or imposable by law to provide support for a child, spouse or former spouse, including an unsatisfied obligation to provide support. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Entity: means a domestic or foreign limited liability company, corporation, professional corporation, foreign corporation, domestic or foreign nonprofit corporation, domestic or foreign cooperative corporation, profit or nonprofit unincorporated association, business trust, domestic or foreign general or limited partnership, two or more persons that have a joint or common economic interest, any state, the United States, a federally recognized Native American or American Indian tribal government or any foreign government. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreign country: means a country, or a political subdivision of a country, other than the United States, that authorizes the issuance of support orders and:

  (a) That has been declared under the law of the United States to be a foreign reciprocating country;

  (b) That has established a reciprocal arrangement for child support with this state as provided in ORS § 110. See Oregon Statutes 110.503

• Foreign limited liability company: means an entity that is an unincorporated association organized under laws other than the laws of the state and that is organized under a statute under which an association may be formed that affords to each of the entity's members limited liability with respect to the liabilities of the entity. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Foreign support order: means a support order of a foreign tribunal. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Foreign tribunal: includes a competent authority under the Convention. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gender identity: means an individual's gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior, regardless of whether the identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that associated with the gender assigned to the individual at birth. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Issuing tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country that issues a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• judicial department: means the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Oregon Tax Court, the circuit courts and all administrative divisions of those courts, whether denominated as boards, commissions, committees or departments or by any other designation. See Oregon Statutes 174.113
• Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Manager: means a person, not necessarily a member, that the members of a manager-managed limited liability company designate to manage the limited liability company's business and affairs. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Member: means a person with both an ownership interest in a limited liability company and all the rights and obligations of a member specified under this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Obligor: means an individual, or the estate of a decedent, that:

  (a) Owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support;

  (b) Is alleged but has not been adjudicated to be a parent of a child;

  (c) Is liable under a support order; or

  (d) Is a debtor in a proceeding under ORS § 110. See Oregon Statutes 110.503

• Operating agreement: means any valid agreement, written or oral, of the member or members as to the affairs of a limited liability company and the conduct of the limited liability company's business. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Party: includes an individual who was, is or is threatened to be made a named defendant or respondent in a proceeding. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Person: means an individual or entity. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency, instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Principal office: means the physical street address of an office, in or out of this state, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign limited liability company are located and designated in the annual report or in the application for authority to transact business in this state. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Probate: Proving a will
• Proceeding: means any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigatory and whether formal or informal. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Register: means to file in a tribunal of this state a support order or judgment determining parentage of a child issued in another state or a foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Sexual orientation: means an individual's actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Shell entity: means an entity that has the characteristics described in ORS § 63. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, any territory or insular possession under the jurisdiction of the United States or an Indian nation or tribe. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• state government: means the executive department, the judicial department and the legislative department. See Oregon Statutes 174.111
• State Treasury: includes those financial assets the lawful custody of which are vested in the State Treasurer and the office of the State Treasurer relating to the custody of those financial assets. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Support enforcement agency: means a public official, governmental entity or private agency authorized to:

  (a) Seek enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support;

  (b) Seek establishment or modification of child support;

  (c) Request determination of parentage of a child;

  (d) Attempt to locate obligors or their assets; or

  (e) Request determination of the controlling child support order. See Oregon Statutes 110.503

• Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse, that provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• United States: includes territories, outlying possessions and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.